Osama bin Laden 'was a modernist not an Islamist' Cambridge Union

Ahlul Bayt News Agency - A Cambridge Union debate heard that Osama Bin Laden was a "modernist, not an Islamist".

The controversial claim came as Muslim affairs intellectual Abdullah al Andalusi and Frances Guy, a former British ambassador to Yemen and Lebanon, proposed the motion "This House blames the West for Islamic extremism".

Ms Guy opened the debate, which was held on Thursday at the Union, and ended in support of the idea that the Western world is to blame for rise of extreme Islamists.

She claimed Islamic extremism was a direct result of the "negligence and hypocrisy" which has characterised Western foreign policy in the last quarter of a century.

Yemen, Syria and Libya have been subject to intervention from the Western world, she said, despite these countries having no understanding of domestic culture in the East - and no domestic allies.

She added that the West showed no willingness to stay in after intervention to "finish the job" and caused an environment favourable to the rise of terrorism.

Mr Andalusi said Osama Bin Laden was "a modernist, not an Islamist".

The religion rejects terrorism under any justification, he added.

Dr Iza Hussin, an author and researcher in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge, also supported the motion.

He said the language we use when we talk about Islamic extremism is skewed to make Western violence seem acceptable and non-Western violence seem bad.

Robin Simcox, a Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson society - a British think-tank - opposed the motion.

He said in the last week 30 Somalian priests were beheaded in Libya, and Boko Haram murdered 19 civilians in Cameroon.

The atrocities could not be explained by actions by the West, he added.

Islamic terrorism was a movement driven by ideas, which has its own propulsion and will not disappear because of our actions.

Chris Doyle, Director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding and a member of the Royal Institute for International Affairs, said there could be no a single reason to explain Islamic extremism and the situation is much more complex.

The proposers won the debate with 39 per cent of the student votes against 33 per cent for the opposition 28 per cent abstainers.


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